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KILL ALL THE MOMS

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This week in my Film Genre class on Asian Horror, we screened "Ju-On," later remade as "The Grudge", which revolves around a haunted house. Long ago, the man who lived there killed his wife and child after he came to suspect that his wife had had an affair. The ghosts return to kill anyone who enters the apartment. Like Ringu, this film felt cheesy and dated enough that I could handle it without being completely freaked out. Although there is some gore, mostly in the reveal of the bloody broken body of the female ghost at the end, none of the murders take place on screen, and there's a pretty silly image of the mother and child ghosts looming over one of their about-to-be victims as she huddles in bed. The director, Takashi Shimizu, has stated that the story was inspired by the rise of domestic abuse cases in Japan, and through its imagery and character development, the film touches on the fury felt by Japanese men (unfortunately this is not limited to Japan) at...
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Ghosts and Ringu

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Last year for me, my first in the MFA program, was a time of new beginnings - returning to school mid-career to try to shift from reality television to writing and directing for scripted tv - and loss. A month before I started at USC, one of my closest friends, Marquette, lost her battle with cancer. We met as directors and filmmakers, so that was a core component of our friendship. She had an MFA from NYU, as well as a law degree from UC Berkeley, and was a professor of film. We encouraged each other in applying for fellowships and grants, and had brainstorming calls to go over all of our various projects and encourage each other on our way. I tried to help her get her feature script off the ground, and in the year before she died, we wrote a pilot together. I wrote her recommendation letters as she was applying for teaching positions; she had a front row seat to my decision to apply to go back to school.  She is on my mind, and over my shoulder watching my progress almost every d...
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Back to School, Again

 USC's fall semester started up this week, and I began my second year in the MFA program in Production, focusing on Writing and Directing. Fight On! * rolls eyes * Last year was so intense that I didn't have a moment to breathe, much less blog about my experience, but here are a few highlights: - My daughter started kindergarten at the same time I entered the MFA program - Although there are a few older students returning to school to try to make a career change, most of the people in my cohort are young enough that I could technically have been their parent. They're all incredibly talented and interesting, but they are having a completely different experience than I am, socializing around the clock, volunteering on films whenever they can, and falling in and out of love with each other at a rapid pace. We screened Mrs. Robinson in one of the group classes, which I felt pret-ty uncomfortable about, not that I have designs on any of these youngsters. Overall, I'm friendl...
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